At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a new virtuosity emerged in the world of violin and viola playing requiring players of these instruments to move their left hand towards and away from their body while playing (known as shifting) in greater extremes. Greater shifting movements required that instrumentalists seek ways to stabilize their violin or viola against their neck.
A very early solution was the chinrest, a disk-shaped plate of wood mounted under the player's jaw on the instrument. The role that properly-fitted chinrests presently play in player health has largely been overlooked, left to chance, and dictated by fashion. Players who have very short or very long necks and arms contort themselves to accommodate violin or viola placement that is too high or too low under their jaw or too far right or left of the instrument center. Additionally, players and teachers are known to randomly try chinrests that are placed on the left side (called “left-mounted chinrest”) of the violin or viola or at the center (called “center-mounted chinrests”) of the instrument without understanding the conditions of use for either kind of chinrest. Fashion and teacher preference, rather than ergonomics, can often dictate “solutions” to these problems.
Additionally, the actual shape of the chinrest cup has largely been ignored in the art, sometimes resulting in a host of skin problems due to improperly matching of chinrest contour to jaw shape. If one likened proper chinrest fit to proper shoe fit, one could say that comfort and “wear-ability” are dictated by successfully finding a good fit in both. Not only must a shoe be long enough, but the width and arch placement of the shoe should be close to the contour of the foot. In chinrest jargon, the chinrest must be high enough and the shape of the top side of the chinrest under the jaw close to the contour of the jaw. Even more basic is guiding people on which shoe goes on which foot. In chinrest terms, teachers and players are not quite sure whether they need a left-mounted chinrest or a center-mounted chinrest. These befuddlements are the cause of many playing-related physical problems in violinists and violists.
Another relatively recent solution to fitting a violin or viola to a player was the addition of a shoulder pad (sometimes called a “shoulder rest”). Usually a rigid structure and not unlike a very small, inverted, short-legged coffee table with rubberized feet, hard shoulder pads are fastened on the collarbone side of the instrument, with the “table surface” resting across the player's left collarbone and breastbone. Using these, violinists and violists were then able to achieve some degree of stabilization and, in many cases, too much. The combined effect of ill fitting chinrests, over-stabilization from hard shoulder pads, lack of emphasis on posture and positioning of the instrument, plus the demands of modern playing have helped violinists and violists achieve infamy in medical journals. It is commonly known in the art that these problems cause overuse injuries plus neck, shoulder, and lower back strain in players of these instruments. Many state that sixty-six percent of players of violin and viola today play in pain. See, “The Influence of Neck-Shoulder Pain on Trapezius Muscle Activity among Professional Violin and Viola Players: An Electomyographic Study by Patrice Pergue, Heather Gray.” Medical Problems of Performing Artists, Volume 17, page 68, 2002.
Because the violin and viola are typically placed on the left side of the body between the collarbone and left jaw, muscles and nerves serving the left shoulder girdle are typically implicated in instrument support and, thus, the most notorious sites of pain and injury. Most teachers are at a loss as to how to solve chinrest fitting issues and, consequently, resorting to a hard shoulder pad is the usual path taken even for young children and adolescents. Unfortunately, it appears that hard shoulder pads compound physical problems by directing support of the instrument to the left shoulder rather than to the spine, the body's main system of support. Also, hard shoulder pads demand a change in bow and left hand technique due to the over-tilting of the instrument. Hard shoulder pads also rarely solve the tendency of “scroll droop,” where the strings are no longer horizontal to the floor, causing tonal problems. Also, children with an instrument and shoulder pad combination that are too high for their neck height unnaturally deform their bodies to hold the instrument.
People understand how important a good-fitting shoe is to day-to-day comfort, discarding shoes whose pressure points and poor shape cause blisters, bunions, and deformities of the foot. Discomfort and resulting medical problems for violinists and violists have been tolerated, quietly endured, or have prematurely and unnecessarily ended careers of many players. This can come about because players have strong allegiances to teachers who insist that students “wear” their model of chinrest and shoulder pad. Other reasons for this quiet misery can be fashion and status: if a well-known artist uses a certain shoulder pad and chinrest combination, other players may think this combination will also help them to play well. Regional preferences also exist; violin shops fit their instruments with one model, and teachers and students think that this is what one must have.
Because violin or viola lessons can begin as early as age three, these same problems also extend to children. To continue the shoe analogy: in the shoe industry, within the last twenty years, the necessity of proper shoe fit for children and shoe design based on this need has finally been established. In the chinrest world, proper fitting of chinrests for children is still largely ignored. Teachers of these young players often ignore the importance of good fit, try to fit them with an adult-style shoulder pad or, in the case of those teachers who do realize the importance of good fit, give up in frustration that there is so little available for their young students. In one currently available mail order catalog, there are eight sizes of violins: 4/4, ⅞, ¾, ½, ¼, ⅛, 1/10, 1/16, and 1/32. Curiously, all these size variations are typically accompanied by one shape of chinrest. It becomes obvious, then, that teachers, players, and manufacturers are assuming that what suits adults should suit children, or that children do not need the same variety as adults.
Young children typically keep the same shape of their jaw for life despite its growth in size as they age into adulthood. The variety of chinrest shapes available for full-size instruments should also be available to young students. More importantly, these chinrests should be shaped with defined ridges necessary for secure, comfortable, and ergonomic fit. Continuing the shoe metaphor: the shoe world has long had shoe measuring devices that help shoe shoppers decide on an appropriate fit, but so far, nothing like this has been found in the violin/viola world for chinrest fitting.
Rudimentary devises are known in the art to address making some adjustment in chinrests for instruments. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,204,642 to Becker describes a raise-able and tiltable chinrest, but the shape cannot be changed. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 1,222,566 to Boles and U.S. Pat. No. 2,486,646 to Halko both show built-in raising devices in the chinrest, but nothing to change the shape. Fractional sizes are not mentioned.
More recent patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,259 to Wolf and U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,835 to Biasini, describe chinrest shape but not height, and D390,252 to Burward-Hoy shows a seemingly higher chinrest, but the shape is static. Again, fractional sizes are not mentioned. In none of the patents is there a device to diagnose left or center placement of the chinrest.
Thus, despite attempts, the prior art fails to provide optimal chinrests for a user. Further, no such devices or methods for proper fitting of a violin chinrest are known in the art to address height, shape, size and placement for a truly custom fit. Thus, there is a desire and a need in the art to provide a properly fitted chinrest for a violin or viola and a method and system for the development of such a chinrest. Such a device and method would greatly aid in the comfort, health, and enjoyment of the player of such instruments, as well as potentially increase the desirability and popularity of playing them.